Are You a Euphemism?
I heard the presumptive Speaker of the House, John Boehner, say that now that the GOP is in control of the House, "we will be listening to America." I wondered exactly what he meant by Americans. Did he mean all Americans or just some subset of the population.
Throughout the 2010 mid-term election campaign interval we were pounded with the idea that Americans were over-taxed, not listened-to, and angry at how the government was intruding into their lives, wasting their hard earned money on frivolous things. Oh, the Pork! Oy, the debt! Argh, the jobs that went overseas and the bankers who got a bailout!
I think that both political parties listened to America but were focusing on different Americans. The GOP listened to what they define as an American. These are the folks who have it all and want to keep it. They must have everything they need because they do not feel that they should pay for anything else.
The GOPAmerican has an annual household income at least 3 to 5 times the poverty level. The income comes from a job because the money they have is in "hard earned dollars." The job comes with health insurance coverage for the family and has no upside limit, covers all pre-existing conditions and doesn't need psychiatric coverage because no one in a GOPAmerican family ever has a mental or behavioral challenge. The family house has a fixed rate mortgage and 50% free-equity. Every licensed driver in the GOPA household has access to a car or truck. Grand mother and granddad don't need that Social Security or Medicare because they saved enough over the last 30 years to have their private savings decimated three times and still have plenty to live on to a ripe old age.
If this sounds at all like you, then you are the Euphemism that Boehner and the GOP speak of. And he is going to listen to you.
Other Americans
There is another America that has Americans in it too. Those Americans have low income jobs. They work hard but need rent subsidy, food subsidy and emergency medical care at the ER because the job they have doesn’t include health insurance so that the employer can make good on the "lowest price guarantee." These Americans rent an apartment or house from someone who has a lot more money than they do. They might have one car but more likely a handful of transit passes. As we learned in the 2010 mid-term election, and as the result of a Supreme Court ruling, money has free speech. If you don't have enough money, you don't get heard.
Formerly GOPAmericans
People and whole families who used to be GOPA have found themselves speechless and unheard. They had jobs and health insurance, a mortgage and plenty of disposable credit. But due to their slackness and ineptitude, they find themselves looking in from outside at the patrons in the restaurant. They discover that the GOPA they counted as friends no longer want to associate with them. They have been shunned. Boehner will be listening to the GOPA not the Other Americans and former GOPA. He knows where the financial support will come from in the next election.
The mortgage will go unpaid when the jobless interval get to be too long. A GOPA bank will lose funds due to that slacker. A GOPA landlord will have to evict the deadbeats in order to preserve the right to do so and make room for someone else.
Business America
We all know that government doesn't create jobs, only private business does that. We have to make the environment conducive to business making money in order to have employment. This means fewer regulations, lower or no taxes, the ability to pay whatever wage the non-GOPA are willing to work for.
While business may create and supply jobs to America, many of them are directly funded by government money raised by taxation and borrowing. If we cut out all the government spending, who is going to pay for all that non-government employee government work?
The newly elected Republican House of Representatives will need to listen to more than just the Euphemistic America. If they forget about all the people who need food, shelter and medical services, the anger we allegedly saw in the 2010 election will be a lot more emphatic the next time. Hunger is motivational.
